Caroline Tensen is violently attacked by a number of prominent journalists. She sat at the table with Eva Jinek yesterday because she has become the figurehead of the transition. “Why a taboo?!”
After years of reading quiz questions in One against 100 and playing the muse of Leco van Zadelhoff, Caroline Tensen has finally found a calling. The 59-year-old presenter has become the figurehead of the transition and last night she sat in that capacity at Eva Jinek’s talk show table. To break taboos.
“Buy my book!”
Breaking taboos about menopause? Such a cliché, several journalists shout on social media. “How many women have taken menopause out of the taboo in the past two decades?” sneered investigative journalist Kim van Keken.
And Telegraaf star journalist Kitty Herweijer complains: “Taboo, taboo, taboo, buy my book, listen to my cliché podcast, subscribe to something with a lucrative sponsorship deal for mezelluufff.”
It is only for the enrichment of Caroline herself, she suggests. “I want a taboo on the breathy and unnecessary use of the word ‘taboo’.”
‘Stop it!’
Nederlands Dagblad journalist Reina Wiskerke is also annoyed. “Stop claiming you’re breaking a taboo.”
NRC columnist Aylin Bilic: “Sigh.”
Volkskrant columnist Emma Curvers is not impressed by Caroline. “Some taboos apparently grow back like Japanese knotweed if they have not been discussed in the media for ten days.”
And AD reporter Jeffrey Stevens (not a woman): “Hadn’t Tanja Jess already taken the transition out of the taboo two months ago at Op1?”
“Taboo, taboo!”
Kim van Keken is getting a bit tired of all those taboo women. “First they will have children (taboo!), then go to a couples therapist (taboo!), then divorce (taboo!), then get a younger boyfriend (taboo!) and then the menopause will come (taboo!). All life is a taboo.”
Volkskrant Magazine columnist Esma Linnemann is a bit more nuanced: “Hmm, I don’t think that we are equipped in law and regulations or in healthcare for the many manifestations (and especially: the excesses) of menopause. Taboo is a big word, it is more of a kind of indifference”
Kim: “It’s great to talk about something, but why always yell so theatrically taboo-breaking. It kills any normal conversation about it.”
Jinek
Caroline at Jinek: